Golden_Avariel

Another way to look at this is that these TF's are already being soloed... you just have to jump through a hoop and tie up someone else's pc for a while to do it.

I've always sided with Bill on this. Most of the TF's I've run have not needed the team size required. In most cases it could be done with half the required size and probably less and virtually no one in my circle of friends uses IO sets to any great degree.

Minimum team size for task/strike forces should be suggestions, not requirements.

+1/x1 seems to work as advertised to me. It gives a nice challenge bump over +0/x1 and it's what I mainly run at after 22nd.

But I agree there is trouble in upping the number of heroes you are worth. It seems to also increase the level of the mobs instead of just the quantity. It acts more like what I'd expect from +1/x2 instead of +0/x2.

Which I suppose is WAI since if there really were 2 or 3 or 8 of me then we'd expect the levels to increase along with quantity. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to get just more of the same when you are solo.

Justice is my main server and where I play most of the time with my friends and supergroup. I only have a couple of solo characters there because...

Protector is where I make characters that are specifically for solo/pug use or to play quietly in duos with my wife (who dislikes big teams). I'm mostly there on weekends.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

I did that one this weekend. He was in plain sight on a balcony in the very first room. Guess I got lucky.

I still don't exactly know what happened at the end. I came out very confused. Not so confused I didn't sweep the rest of the office for Malta, but still...

We had just finished up a very successful GURPS Superhero game when COH was released. It looked awesome but there was no way I was going to pay to play so I didn't get it. My son did however and watching him play when I visited him (he was in college at the time) made me very envious.

Fast-forward several years... I've been playing NWN online for a long time. The main friend I'd been playing with and I were having trouble coming up with yet another set of characters and getting kind of bored of it. Without talking to her, I start browsing through the various MMO options. I didn't really like what I saw for two reasons: 1) I couldn't customize my characters (our NWN server had free crafting and I was hooked on custom looks) and 2) I hate PvP and those games almost required it.

I then stumbled across COH... I remember being surprised that it was still around. But there were my two big hangups resolved plus that old yearning from watching my son played also returned. I finally decided "what the heck" and downloaded the trial. "I'll just run the trial and go back to NWN..."

While I'm doing the download I get an AIM message from my friend asking what I'm doing and I tell her. Next thing I know she's downloading the trial too.

Next I e-mail my son and tell him what I'm doing and he enthusiastically re-subs to join us and show us the ropes and such.

The costume maker hooked us both. The game was fast and fun and 3-dimensional. Flying was grand! We started wavering on our "play the trial and then return to NWN" promise.

Then one day we are in Perez Park at 8th level trying to fight Circle of Thorns. We are on the brink of death when some fire tank/scrapper plops down in the middle of our fight. Everything dies and the hero jumps away before I even know what happened. I knew then that I WANTED to be a hero like that!

I upgraded to a full subscription the next day and so did my friend. Our spouses and many of our friends have joined us since then.

January? No way! It's been since March and 6 months from that has passed. Time for some Double xp goodness!

I say do it this month - either the weekend before the Halloween event starts or sometime in November during or just after the event.

Nice! We are about due for one.

So... 10/7 to 10/10 is "almost FIVE full days"? I'm pretty sure that is almost four days.

I have an escort/ally that is rescued in the last mission of my arc. When I first made it the escort worked properly - she'd fight beside you while with you and if you took her to the exit she would leave.

Since issue 15 or 16, I forget, she stopped leaving. If you take her to the door the objective completes but she doesn't leave and stays with you. I don't know if the mission would fail after that if she dies, I haven't had her die on me after that.

Combat Abilities: Fight Defensively
Destination: Mission Entrance
Arrival Behavior: Run to nearest door

It is a troll cave map, not an outdoor.

Any ideas or is this a known problem?

Ah, well other powers have to-hit in the 89-95% range and actual accuracy was the same. Blazing Aura is the lowest at around 81 because it has only 1 level 30 accuracy IO in it.

3rd session, other powers still spot on but Blazing Aura still unusually low:
Player To-Hit Chance: Average for Blazing Aura = 81.65
Hits by Blazing Aura: 9
Misses by Blazing Aura: 134
Accuracy % for Blazing Aura: 6.29%

And I know 4 of those hits were from a batch of level 5 Hellions in AP near a mission entrance. So after 364 attacks Blazing Aura's average accuracy to actually hit is 5.77%.

There's gotta be something wrong with that... right?

I published the numbers from Herostats. Average between the two sessions was around 81% chance to hit, actual accuracy was 5.22%. Granted that's only a couple of hundred tries but still. Seems strange when everything else's to-hit was hovering within a percent or two of the actual accuracy.

I love it to prevent wasting it in PUGs. In our SG of course it wasn't a problem because we always fortune the one below us in the team list (bottom hits the leader). It made things a ton easier and even with this change knowing who to hit in any situation speeds things up.

Player To-Hit Chance: Average for Blazing Aura = 79.25
Hits by Blazing Aura: 4
Misses by Blazing Aura: 84
Accuracy % for Blazing Aura: 4.55%

Combined Accuracy for both days after 230 rolls... 5.22%

Played my firey aura scrapper tonight. I was pleased all around during play although I've always felt the blazing aura wasn't worth the endurance drain.

When I got finished I reviewed the Herostats...
Player To-Hit Chance: Average for Blazing Aura = 83.55
Hits by Blazing Aura: 8
Misses by Blazing Aura: 142
Accuracy % for Blazing Aura: 5.33%

Heh... now that's pathetic. At least all the other powers look fine between 89 and 100%. Guess I better look at my slotting on the aura but the diff between 83 and 5 is... wow.

Speaking of Blazing Aura... anyone else notice that the aura is looking pretty anemic lately? It used to be a definite pulsing ring but now I just get one or two little pulsing jets.

My *guess* is that even after they extend the level, their tailors still won't offer costume slot missions or capes. Praetorians will still be forced to "choose a side" at 20th and even if they are able to freely move back and forth, they'll be going to Paragon or the Rogue Isles for their capes and slots.

But I have absolutely nothing to base that on other than the mechanics of how that stuff works now.

I downloaded Herostats and used it for the first time last night on my level 12 defender.

I had a very pleasent evening getting her up to 14 and I seemed to be hitting all the time... Bill is right! It is a plot! But I'm on to them now, if I run the herostats they'll have to let me hit now or I'll have proof!!

Silliness aside, all of my powers hit an average of 91-98% of the time which is cool since I have enough accuracy DO's in them to have a "last to-hit" of 95% on all the blue-con minions I was fighting last night (diff -1, I have enough stress this week thank you).

This morning they were back to normal, all in the low 80's. But it WAS only 2 missions. I'll see how it plays out over time.

[Edit] LOVE the poster Arcana LOL

Twice in the last two days I've seen guys exemplared below 20 get tips. One just last night when a level 34 tank helped my defender get the Spelunker badge at level 12.

It really seems to matter what your level is vs the relative level of the creature. Level 20 critters isn't really the deciding factor as far as I can tell. It's more like level 20+ experience rewards.

I grew accustomed to missing 20% of the time with a 95% chance to hit many many years ago, well before COH. It is irritating because I HATE to miss and I overslot accuracy in all my powers, but I am resigned to my fate. After all, unlucky at cards...

The closest I've come to counting is to count while I'm attacking. If the hit chance is 95 then I count +1. I usually don't get over 10 and frequently don't go over 5, but I have been known to have a streak of 25 sometimes.

I just did a google on HeroStats. I think I'll download it and give it a whirl. I'd love to be surprised.

Yeah, I'm seeing that too. Man, that is certainly different than the way sidekicking in a TF used to work.

Every day I come across yet another reason I love SSK.